As a school that values inquiry as a way of teaching and learning, AAS aims to cultivate the innate curiosity that children have. We ask students TONS of questions all day; some are to role model how we show interest in someone else, some are to provoke the students’ thinking further, some are aimed to have them reflect on their processes of thinking and explain them, and some are to gain clarity on their plans. Most are to provoke students’ curiosity. The main goal is to have students be agents of their own thinking and learning, and to be curious about their world. Instead of giving answers to their questions, teachers respond with “How can you find out?” or “What will you do about it?” or “Let’s investigate together." This fosters students who take action and become leaders of their decision making process, who take control, so they hopefully will be ready to make bigger decisions independently later in their lives.

Reading the article below, I realized there is another good reason to have students be active learners: because it will help them be and stay hopeful. Questions often lead to actions, and in taking action, our students feel empowered. And from those feelings of empowerment can come hopefulness. In a world that can seem daunting and unpredictable, hopefulness is a trait to cultivate.

The author writes “hope (…) is the conviction that the world can be better. Under this framework, hope is empowering because it requires action and allows for agency. The future “can be better,” because humans can do something to make it so.” The author goes on to say that being an optimist is not enough because it assumes that things will turn out positively on their own. Creating a hopeful mindset is what we should be striving for in our children.

Our school encourages Community Service and Service Learning to show students that they can act and make a difference and should not fall into cynicism. Taking action also increases students’ sense of self worth. 

What can you do to cultivate hope in your children? Take the time to appreciate positive experiences and tasty food, enjoy beautiful moments, help them notice when good things happen to them or others and when someone is being kind or helping others. This will keep your child(ren)’s outlook on life in a hopeful light.
 
Let’s keep our children curious so they look for the goodness in the world!

Resources that inspired the article: 

The Benefits of Raising Hopeful Kids in Cynical Times | KQED

Resources for Families | Making Caring Common